


Birds of a Feather

by Glitched_Fox



Series: 2017 BATIM Fics Upload [8]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Arguments, Broken Bones, Gen, Not In Much Detail, because im self-indulgent trash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 17:48:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14525961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitched_Fox/pseuds/Glitched_Fox
Summary: Henry and Joey have been friends as long as they can remember. Also as long as they can remember, Henry has been watching Joey do stupid stunts for the heck of it.OR: Joey is a majestic birb. Usually.---Feathered Frames/Wings AU by me.





	Birds of a Feather

**Author's Note:**

> I still, surprisingly, really like this one. Probably just because of how much I adore wings AUs. Anywho, this is probably one of my favorites along with Secret Keeper so, yeah. Enjoy!

Henry and Joey were thirteen years old and were standing on a two story building. Joey tapped his foot impatiently as Henry looked over the edge of the roof, oversized barn owl wings spread slightly.

“Well? Will I die if I jump off?” Joey asked, pacing over to his friend.

“No, but it’ll hurt.” Henry hesitated, then added, “A lot.”

“But I won’t die and therefore it won’t be an issue,” Joey said triumphantly, his white gyrfalcon wings raised up.

“Joey, this is dangerous. Your primaries just finished growing in; you aren’t used to your wings yet.”

“Dude, I was born with wings like all of us.”

“Yeah, but they were smaller back then! You’re gonna unfold them and get caught by the wind or something and I don’t want you to get hurt!”

Joey rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “Oh, you think you’re so smart just because your wings developed before mine.”

Henry huffed. “It’s not like that and you know it.”

Joey ignored him, unfurling his awkwardly folded wings. As Henry had predicted, Joey was thrown off-balance by the sudden shift in weight distribution, stumbling. He made a little chirp of surprise and Henry sighed.

“Joey, please don’t do this. You’re gonna get yourself hurt.” Henry rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder, brown and white feathers touching white and black.

“I’ll be fine! I’m a natural-born flier.”

“How would you know? You’ve never flown before,” Henry pointed out.

“Oh, shush.” The eager gyrfalcon stepped up to the edge of the roof, glancing to the ground.

“Look, let me get you down from here, then I can teach you how to fly without this danger factor. Or we could ask our parents. Heck, maybe we could ask our instructor. Y’know, the guy who’s paid to teach kids how to fly?”

Joey flapped his wings, testing them out. Henry raised his own, as if trying to shield himself. He closed his eyes and turned away, so that he wouldn’t be held liable for his companion’s actions.

Henry heard Joey’s feet leave the rooftop, then his uneven wingbeats. Soon after, there was a dull thud, almost preventing the sickening crack from reaching Henry’s hearing. But he was an owl, so he heard it, and he also heard Joey’s shriek of pain and string of curses. Nervously, Henry flapped his wings, lifting into the air in order to glide down properly to Joey’s side. One glance told Henry everything he needed to know.

“I don’t think your wing is supposed to bend that way.”

 

Henry and Joey had just turned sixteen and were standing on one of the multiple tower-things set up around town to help kids learn how to fly and teenagers to do stupid stunts. They weren’t much- just a raised up wooden platform with a ladder on the lower ones. Except the duo was standing on a higher one. No ladder, expecting you to be able to fly up to it.

“So, you’re gonna fly off this thing?” Henry raised an eyebrow.

“No, no. I’m gonna jump with my wings folded, then snap ‘em open in mid air. A valuable skill, with how many people want to push me off a cliff now-a-days,” Joey explained.

“Yeah, but a hard one to get down.” Henry bit his lip. “That’s gonna hurt.”

“I’m sure it can’t hurt more than a broken wing.” Joey chuckled.

Henry pinched the bridge of his nose. “So, I’m going to assume that you’re going to try this regardless of what I say?”

“Yup.”

Henry looked up, a deadpan expression as he gazed at his friend. Joey stood there, a smug grin on his face, his wings spread slightly. “At least take off your jacket.”

“Will it make you stop whining at me?”

“Most likely.”

Joey laughed a little, tugging his leather jacket off and draping it over Henry’s head. Before the barn owl could do anything, Joey ran and jumped.

Henry, now holding the jacket in his arms, tilted his head, listening. There was a swoosh of air as Joey’s wings snapped open…

...followed immediately by a yelp of pain and a loud curse. Henry couldn’t keep the smile off his face as Joey landed in front of him once more, wings held open out of pain and shock.

“That was a very unpleasant sensation,” Joey informed Henry.

“I told you.”

 

Henry and Joey were eighteen and were standing on the highest platform set up in town. Henry fiddled with the stopwatch for a moment, before looking up. Joey grinned, spreading his wings.

“On your mark, get set, go!” Henry clicked the button on the stopwatch as Joey took off.

A few uneventful minutes later, Joey landed and Henry clicked the button again.

“Just over five minutes.”

“Hmph.” Joey shook off his wings, stepping into his starting position again. “I can do better than that.”

Henry rolled his eyes, but timed the gyrfalcon's flight again anyway.

Who-knows-how-long later (Henry was willing to guess about an hour or two), Joey landed again for what felt like the millionth time, stumbling on the platform.

The owl glanced at the stopwatch boredly. “Three minutes, almost to the second.”

Joey stood still for a moment, catching his breath, then nodded. “Alright. Let’s go again.”

“No.”

The gyrfalcon glanced back at his companion. “What?”

“I’m not gonna let you keep doing this. You’re gonna miss a wingbeat or something like that. You’re just tiring yourself out.”

Joey flapped his wings irritably. “You’re just saying that cause I’m faster than you.”

Henry shook his head, standing up from where he had been sitting on the edge of the platform. “C’mon, Joey. This isn’t good for you and you know it.”

“I’m fine, Henry.”

“Let’s just go home, alright? We can practice more tomorrow, if you really want to that bad.”

Joey didn’t respond. He backed up, then flung himself backwards off the platform, easily flipping over and catching himself with his wings in midair. Henry spread his own wings and took off after his friend.

Henry wasn’t as fast as Joey, and they both knew that, but at least Joey’s tiredness gave Henry somewhat of a chance. The owl dipped under the other, flapping his wings and allowing himself to soar up in front of Joey, effectively blocking him from continuing along his flight path.

Joey grumbled, snapping his wings shut in an attempt to drop out of the situation, but Henry grabbed Joey’s shirt collar, forcing him to start flying again if he didn’t want to be strangled.

“Time to go home, Joey.”

“...Fine.”

 

Henry and Joey were twenty and Henry wasn’t even surprised that Joey had managed to get them trapped in the eye of a hurricane.

“Why?” Henry asked as they circled around each other, gliding simply because they didn’t know what else to do.

“Don’t you hear it?” Joey’s dark eyes scanned the ground that was barely even visible in these conditions. “There’s someone out here and I’m going to feel really guilty if she dies and I didn’t even try to do anything about it.”

Henry fell silent, taking Joey’s advice and listening. He had heard it, earlier. He wasn’t sure how long they’d been flying, nor how much longer they would be if they decided it wasn’t worth trying to break through the storm. But he had heard the cries of the little girl just a few minutes ago. He knew what Joey was saying, but still.

Without warning, Joey dropped into a dive, quickly disappearing from Henry’s view. The owl stared, dumbstruck.

“I can’t believe Joey just died,” he deadpanned somewhat jokingly as he continued to glide best he could.

A few minutes later, Joey appeared beside Henry again, carrying a young girl- ten or so, by Henry’s best guess. She huddled into him, visibly frightened. Her undeveloped wings were tucked into her back, missing a significant amount of feathers.

“Hey there, kid,” Henry greeted reassuringly, adjusting his position so that he was hovering right in front of Joey and the child. “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m scared and my wings hurt,” the kid mumbled, clutching onto Joey’s shirt and arms.

“I know, but you’re safe now. I’m Henry and the guy holding you is Joey. What’s your name?”

“Amelia.”

Henry smiled softly. “That’s a nice name. Where do you live, Amelia?”

“I-I don’t know the address, but I can get to my house from the school.”

“What town is it?”

Amelia gave the name of the town Henry and Joey had grown up in and they shared a happy look. They had both gone off to college, and were currently back visiting while they chased their dreams of being cartoonists.

“That’s our town too, Amelia,” Joey said.

“Really? Cool!”

They didn’t fly in the storm for much longer. It died down enough that they were able to fly through it without hurting themselves (or Amelia).

Henry set down Amelia and they rested for a minute while Joey figured out where they were and how to get back to town.

“Mr. Henry?”

Henry chuckled. “Just call me Henry, Amelia. What is it?”

“When my wings develop, could you teach me how to fly?”

Henry stared at the girl for a moment. “Doesn’t that opportunity belong to your parents?”

“Yeah, but mom doesn’t fly much and papa is still trying to find work.” She grinned sheepishly. Now that the lighting was better, Henry could see how her reddish feathers blended nicely with her dark skin and yellow clothing. “Also, you and Mr. Joey are cool! You flew through a hurricane!”

“We’ll see, alright?” Amelia nodded, satisfied with this answer. Joey returned, and together, they flew back to town.

 

Henry and Joey were thirty and standing on the roof of the studio. Henry stood on the edge, head tilted back and eyes closed, wings spread. The wind tossed his hair and ruffled his feathers.

Joey’s ink-covered wings were folded in awkwardly, and he crossed his arms, annoyed. “Why’d you drag me up here if you’re just gonna stand there?”

“You never told me what we were doing. You just went ‘follow me’ or ‘meet me on the roof after class’ without an explanation until you gave me a diagram or handed over the stopwatch.”

“So? You always came because you knew I would never do anything that could hurt you!”

Henry laughed emotionlessly. “Nothing that hurt me physically, maybe. Emotionally is another story. You scared me so much with some of the things you tried. You knew you were a good flier, and I couldn’t say otherwise. You were one of the best, so you let yourself take risks when you did stunts, because you knew you’d be able to do it or recover. And now look at you.” Henry folded in his wings, turning around to face Joey. He reached out, running his fingers lightly over his friend’s once-white feathers.

“So I can’t really fly anymore, whatever. I got my wish. This studio was all I ever wanted, and now I have it!” Joey extending his wings, grinning joyfully. “And these cartoons are popular, Henry! People know my name! I’m not just the kid who sprained his wing once a month doing stupid stunts anymore. I’m so much better than that.”

Henry stared at Joey silently for a moment, reaching into his pocket. He held out a crumpled letter to the gyrfalcon, hand trembling slightly. Joey raised an eyebrow, snatching the paper from the owl’s hand and glancing at it. His brows furrowed, and he took the note in both hands, wings slowly lowering as he re-read it.

“Do you remember Amelia?”

Joey nodded, still staring blankly at the letter, unable to speak. Henry rested a hand on top of Joey’s, fingers curling around the paper as he lightly tugged it away. Joey looked up, hands dropping to his sides.

“Flew through a hurricane to save that girl, and now she’s basically my intern,” Joey mumbled.

“What about Carter?”

Joey tilted his head. “Who?”

Henry drooped his wings. “He got a flight scholarship. Only reason he flies is because he was inspired by you. Same with kids like Karen and Jack.”

“I don’t remember them, but I’m glad they’re doing well,” Joey stated. “What does that have to do with you being drafted?”

Both men flinched at the word.

“Look, Joey…” Henry hesitated, trying to figure out how to phrase what he wanted to say. “I’m disappointed. And a little concerned, I guess. You used to be an inspiration. You were so happy-”

“I’m still HAPPY,” Joey growled, almost yelling. “Everything I ever needed is right. Here. I have my animations, my studio, my employees, and my best friend by my side to support me.”

“But you don’t see what happened! You’ve lost everything we built over the years. What was the point of trying to set a new record if you don’t care about it anymore?”

“I was naive! Nothing more than a child. Now I know what I want. I have a plan, and it’s going to be great! Just stay with me. Stay with this company. Give me a month. Dreams can come true, Henry.”

“I’m scared, Joey! You’ve been locking yourself in your office more and more. And don’t you remember what happened last week? Sammy’s still avoiding the other departments. I don’t know what you did to him, but whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, you need to stop.”

“I can’t stop now!” Joey’s wings fluttered. “I’m so close. Throw away that letter and stay here. The authorities won’t do anything about it once everything’s said and done. That’s just how wondrous it all will be!” Joey laughed. 

Henry took a step back, feeling genuine fear course through him. “This isn’t about being drafted anymore,” Henry said softly. With a sigh, he spread his wings, adjusting his feathers slightly as he judged the wind speed.

“What?” The gyrfalcon’s wings dropped. “Please don’t go! I need you! It won’t be the same without you!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Henry…”

“I quit.” With those parting words, Henry took off. Joey watched him fly away for far too long, helpless to do anything about it.

Joey took a moment to compose himself, tucking his wings in and holding his chin up. He climbed down the ladder on the side of the building, then walked around and entered the front door.

“Aye, boss, there you are!” A young man with robin wings darted up to Joey.

Joey stared at the employee for a moment, and those bright red feathers. The robin was saying something, but Joey wasn’t listening. The animator pushed past the employee, plucking one of the primaries as he did so. The employee yelped, wrapping his wing around himself in pain and shock, but Joey didn’t care. He stepped into his office, slamming the door shut and locking it. He stood at his desk, using one wing to brush all the papers off of it. He grabbed a blueprint from under his desk, setting it on top.

“I have so much work to do.”

 

Henry was sixty and he was already regretting coming back as soon as he landed in front of the run-down studio. It looked exactly as he remembered it, except…

The roof. The roof had been changed. If one were to climb up to it, there was no way they would be able to find a good enough spot to take off. A chill ran down Henry’s spine, and he averted his gaze. He folded in his wings, faded feathers not making a single sound. The perks of being a barn owl were many.

He reached to the door handle, memories flooding back to him. He remembered Joey leading the way here, grinning ear to ear as he presented the studio to Henry for the first time. He remembered getting ink on his feathers the first work day, and learning that was something he would have to live with. He remembered the black spots on Joey’s feathers disappearing. Not because there were more white feathers, no. It was the other way around as ink seeped into the man’s wings.

A cold wind blew by, ruffling Henry’s feathers. He shivered, hand closing around the door handle. Well, it was now or never.

He opened the door and stepped inside, hearing a click as the door closed behind him. He stood still for a moment, letting his night vision kick in as he gazed around the dark and abandoned studio.

“Alright, Joey. I'm here. Let's see if we can find what you wanted me to see.”


End file.
